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Walking to loosen the creative flow

I get many blogging ideas when I’m walking. Every day I try to walk for an hour at least in total. If you’re sitting at a blank screen, wondering what to write, I recommend you go for a walk. A study at Stanford University found a person walking indoors – on a treadmill in a room facing a blank wall – or walking outdoors in the fresh air produced twice as many creative responses compared to a person sitting down.

Wordsworth was a walker. Charles Dickens was a walker, he would walk at night because he had a problem sleeping. Virginia Woolf walked for inspiration.

From where I live on the ninth floor of a Soviet block in Varketili to the metro station is a 15 minute walk. I can take a bus, but rarely do as I prefer to walk.

I could take a bus but rarely do, they are very crowded.

The route isn’t the most exciting, but that can be good for thinking creatively. I always carry my camera in a pouch on my belt in case I see anything interesting. The route is the same but there are different cars, people, animals and skies.

Sunlight is good for us, sunlight stimulates hormones (cortisol and melatonin, for example) in ways that promote activity and rest.

Sat at a computer we can be overstimulated checking our Facebook, Twitter, Inbox etc…the brain needs some downtime. Ideas need time to incubate: after you encounter a problem, some part of your brain will work on it while you’re working on other things.

The start of my daily walk to the metro.

A wet day an urban landscape, not the most inspiring day, but once walking I start thinking. Ideas flow. I thought about writing this post.